Speaker 1: Our story moves from the gaudy lobby of New York's
Speaker 1: Trump Tower to the elegant one hundred and seventy seven
Speaker 1: year old Barlock Hotel located on the banks of Lake
Speaker 1: Zurich in Switzerland. The five star Borlock Hotel is the
Speaker 1: type of place you walk in and immediately stand up
Speaker 1: a little straighter. You can expect to find businessmen and
Speaker 1: handcrafted suits alongside exquisite women wearing the latest fashion from
Speaker 1: Paris in Milan. With its manicured private gardens along Lake Zurich,
Speaker 1: a lobby adorn not just with art, but with nineteenth
Speaker 1: century European tapestries, its rooms can run into the thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars a night. It is as much a hotel
Speaker 1: as it is a parade of wealth, power and privilege.
Speaker 1: Another important fact, the Borlock is the place FIFA executive
Speaker 1: stay when they're in down visiting the organization's headquarters. Just
Speaker 1: a short ten minutes or so dry from the hotel,
Speaker 1: you'll find FIFA House, as the headquarters is called. It
Speaker 1: couldn't be more different than the ritzy Bora Lack Hotel.
Speaker 1: A modern steel and glass structure, FIFA House is a fortress.
Speaker 1: It was built two thirds underground, almost as if FIFA
Speaker 1: meant it to be impenetrable, almost as if FIFA had
Speaker 1: something to hide. The headquarters was built on the watch
Speaker 1: of longtime FIFA president sept Bladder, who like to say,
Speaker 1: and I quote, places where people make decisions should only
Speaker 1: contain indirect light. So why have I taken you on
Speaker 1: this architectural tour of Zurich Because this is where that
Speaker 1: two thousand and ten meeting between Chuck Blazer and Age
Speaker 1: from the FBI and the I R S would lead us.
Speaker 1: I'm Connor Powell. This is episode two the Raid. On
Speaker 1: the morning of May two thousand and fifteen, just as
Speaker 1: the sun was coming up over Zurich, soccer's most powerful
Speaker 1: men were gathered in the Barlock Hotel for a meeting
Speaker 1: later that day at FIFA House. Unbeknownst to them, to
Speaker 1: New York Times reporters had taken up seats in the
Speaker 1: hotel's lobby, tipped off that something big was about to
Speaker 1: go down. We told the gentleman behind the front desk
Speaker 1: that we were there for a breakfast meeting and wouldn't
Speaker 1: be all right if we waited, and he said sure,
Speaker 1: that's Sam Borden, a long time sports journalist now with ESPN.
Speaker 1: Sam doesn't normally wear a suit, but he told me
Speaker 1: he decided that spring morning he should the boar Lock
Speaker 1: he thought was the type of place where men wait
Speaker 1: in the lobby should look the part boarding and investigative
Speaker 1: reporter Michael Schmidt, where they're on assignment for The New
Speaker 1: York Times. They knew something important was about to happen,
Speaker 1: something that would rock the cloistered world of international soccer.
Speaker 1: Then it began, and about six six am, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, a group of a dozen, maybe eighteen sixteen
Speaker 1: eighteen men walk into the lobby. It became very clear
Speaker 1: that something was going to happen. Wearing jeans, dark sweatshirts
Speaker 1: and sneakers, this pedestrian mix of Swiss police and American
Speaker 1: FBI agents couldn't have looked more out of place, and
Speaker 1: yet the hotel was now firmly in their control. They
Speaker 1: go to the front desk and they show a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of paperwork to the gentleman behind the front desk.
Speaker 1: Presumably these are arrest warrants. And obviously at this point
Speaker 1: there's sort of a commotion in the lobby because there's
Speaker 1: like one, maybe two people working this early morning shift
Speaker 1: for the hotel, and now all of a sudden, there's
Speaker 1: several dozen police officials in the lobby. Schmidt sent a
Speaker 1: tweet to his thousands of followers. It read Swiss law
Speaker 1: enforcement getting room numbers for FIFA executives. They are heading
Speaker 1: upstairs to arrest. Schmidt and Borden were recording the initial
Speaker 1: moments of the most significant corruption takedown in international sports history,
Speaker 1: and yet it was a surprisingly civilized affair. I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there and I'm just watching the elevator looking to see, Okay,
Speaker 1: when an elevator leaves the lobby, I'll be able to
Speaker 1: tell what floor it goes to by looking at the
Speaker 1: numbers above the doors. And at some point the elevator
Speaker 1: starts moving and I see that it's going to I
Speaker 1: think it was either the third of the fourth floor.
Speaker 1: So I go up to the third of the fourth
Speaker 1: floor and I follow several police officials as they go
Speaker 1: down the hall. You know from existence, would follow them
Speaker 1: and they knock on the door. I was sort of
Speaker 1: expecting it to be like something you would see from
Speaker 1: a movie, where these guys would be like in you know,
Speaker 1: uniforms and you know, riot gear and carrying like big
Speaker 1: guns and to sort of kick the door in, And
Speaker 1: it was not like that at all. I remember thinking
Speaker 1: in the moment that if you were sleeping in the
Speaker 1: room next door, I don't know that you would have
Speaker 1: been woken up. Sam Borden went on to describe the
Speaker 1: raid in a way I've never heard a police raid described.
Speaker 1: It was very pleasant, as pleasant as law enforcements demeanor
Speaker 1: might have been. It was a rude awakening for the
Speaker 1: seven FIFA officials whose hotel doors received those polite knocks.
Speaker 1: These lords of soccer had entered the Barlock hotel expecting
Speaker 1: to enjoy the protections that come with great privilege. Now
Speaker 1: they were being marched out in the harsh morning light,
Speaker 1: indicted criminals, using whatever they could to shield themselves from
Speaker 1: the public's glare. We saw several of those FIFA officials
Speaker 1: led from the hotel. I think it was the hotel
Speaker 1: staff trying to protect their appearance, if not their dignity,
Speaker 1: with white hotel sheets. Word of the dawn raids spread
Speaker 1: quickly around the world as newspapers, TV stations, and social
Speaker 1: media reported the arrest. Major corruption crackdown going down right now.
Speaker 1: Arrest made around the world this morning was like something
Speaker 1: out of a crime thriller. High ranking officials from FIFA,
Speaker 1: the sports governing body, arrested in an overnight rate in Switzerland,
Speaker 1: the result of a sweeping FBI investigation. The US Justice
Speaker 1: Department accuses them of corruption and bribe taking, involving tens
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars. The raid was the culmination of
Speaker 1: a US federal case years in the making, an investigation
Speaker 1: that had largely stalled until the I R s Flip
Speaker 1: Chuck Blazer that fateful November day outside Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: The allegations hardly came as a surprise to long time
Speaker 1: FIFA critics, but the fact that it was breaking out
Speaker 1: in the open was, in a word, shocking. FIFA had
Speaker 1: operated with impunity for decades, and yet as significant as
Speaker 1: these arrests were, the scope of the scandal was only
Speaker 1: just coming into focus. Now. You might ask yourself, why
Speaker 1: did it take so long to do something about FIFA
Speaker 1: and its corrupt leadership. Part of the answer is and
Speaker 1: how absolutely huge soccer is as a sport, and how
Speaker 1: important it is to the leaders of FIFA's member nations.
Speaker 1: The same leaders who are vying to host big tournaments
Speaker 1: like the World Cup are the ones who would have
Speaker 1: to take enforcement action against FIFA. Let me try to
Speaker 1: offer some perspective. Yeah, it's the products ultimate gay. Soccer
Speaker 1: is a popular game if you live in the United States.
Speaker 1: It's hard to a's just how popular it is. Some
Speaker 1: fans describe it as a religion, or at least as
Speaker 1: important as religion, and they're not kidding. Here's a comparison.
Speaker 1: About a hundred and three million people watch the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl in two thousand and eighteen. That same year, some
Speaker 1: three and a half billion people, if you can believe it,
Speaker 1: watch the World Cup tournament, with more than a billion
Speaker 1: alone tuning in for the final match between Croatia and France.
Speaker 1: It will be some concin on the shows and they
Speaker 1: say to nights from all the champions of the world. Well,
Speaker 1: it's possible you weren't one of them. It's likely you
Speaker 1: know someone who did, especially if you know someone who
Speaker 1: lives in Europe, Asia, South America, or Africa, pretty much
Speaker 1: the entire rest of the world where soccer is king.
Speaker 1: Imagine then the power one has to oversee a sport
Speaker 1: of that magnitude as you already know. FIFA runs the
Speaker 1: World Cup, along with a host of other related tournaments,
Speaker 1: but the organization thinks of itself as something more, almost divine.
Speaker 1: But FIFA, it's our responsibility to develop the game for
Speaker 1: future generations and to protect its integrity. That's part of
Speaker 1: FIFA's mission statement from a few years ago. You can
Speaker 1: find it on their website, and it's well, absolutely absurd.
Speaker 1: Football is the hart and soul of FIFA. It's debatable
Speaker 1: whether soccer the game or the lessons it imparts, or
Speaker 1: even a top priority. Money and the making of money
Speaker 1: and the finding ways the stuff that money into offshore
Speaker 1: bank accounts. That seems to be far more important for
Speaker 1: soccer's ruling elite. And here's how the FIFA machine is structured.
Speaker 1: FIFA governs the sport internationally and organizes the Men's and
Speaker 1: Women's World Cup tournaments, which are held be four years.
Speaker 1: FIFA hosts several smaller tournaments as well. Collectively, they bring
Speaker 1: in more than four billion dollars in revenue, pretty good
Speaker 1: money for an organization that doesn't run any leagues, just
Speaker 1: a few tournaments every couple of years. FIFA is for
Speaker 1: the most part, an association of countries There are currently
Speaker 1: two hundred and eleven members, which means FIFA is actually
Speaker 1: larger than the United Nations because while the country, like
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom, is part of the u N, Wales,
Speaker 1: England and Scotland are all separate members of FIFA and
Speaker 1: each has one vote in our democratic system. FIFA is
Speaker 1: separated into six regional confederations, each with its own staggering
Speaker 1: history of corruption, but most of our story will focus
Speaker 1: on the Big three UEFA, the European Confederation CONKI, CAALF,
Speaker 1: the North American one and came Bowl, South America's umbrella organization.
Speaker 1: As the guardians of the global game, it is on
Speaker 1: duty to serve the world of football. At the top
Speaker 1: of FIFA is the President and the Executive Committee. These
Speaker 1: are really the lords of soccer, several of whom in
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen were arrested at the Barlock Hotel.
Speaker 1: In theory, they set the vision and craft the strategy
Speaker 1: for FIFA and the global soccer community. In reality, for
Speaker 1: the most part, they treat the sport like their own
Speaker 1: personal fiefdoms and FIFA like their own private piggy bank.
Speaker 1: And on the long list of crooked soccer officials, Jack
Speaker 1: Warner is a standout. He's the former president of Conka
Speaker 1: caffeine buddy to Chuck Blazer. He also sent that email
Speaker 1: to Blazer you heard about an episode one that caused
Speaker 1: Blazer's meltdown. For years, Warner was one of the sports
Speaker 1: most powerful executives and its most corrupt. Warner's story is
Speaker 1: almost unbelievable, and it serves as an illustration of what
Speaker 1: FIFA really was and how business really got done. The
Speaker 1: honor guards snapped to attention as the frail South African
Speaker 1: anti apartheid leader exited the Gulf Stream jet. It was
Speaker 1: the spring of two thousand and four and Nelson Mandela
Speaker 1: was unwell. He struggled to walk down the plan's short
Speaker 1: staircase and then across the tarmac to where a small
Speaker 1: podium was waiting. Mandela, the Nobel Prize winning activists, managed
Speaker 1: only a few words, but the excited crowd of politicians
Speaker 1: and locals didn't seem to care as they yelled at
Speaker 1: his nickname, my Diba Madba. At eighty five years old,
Speaker 1: Mandela was exhausted. He hadn't slept on the twenty four
Speaker 1: hour flight from South Africa to Trinidad and Tobago. He
Speaker 1: really didn't want to be there, but his country needed
Speaker 1: him once again. And for Jack Warner, feva's powerful vice president,
Speaker 1: that was leverage. Now. At this time, Mandela hadn't been
Speaker 1: traveling anywhere under doctor's orders, but will I insisted, so
Speaker 1: South Africa, for the sake of the World Cup bid,
Speaker 1: essentially had doctors to make the trip across the ocean.
Speaker 1: That's journalist Losana Liebird, who's been reporting on Conker Calf
Speaker 1: for more than a decade. South Africa was on the
Speaker 1: cusp of winning the right to host the two thousand
Speaker 1: and ten World Cup, the first African nation to do so.
Speaker 1: Four years earlier, South Africa had been the bookmaker's favorites
Speaker 1: to win the two thousand and six World Cup bid.
Speaker 1: After losing out unexpectedly, the pressure was on their leaders
Speaker 1: to deliver Mandel's visit to Trinidad and Tobago was seen
Speaker 1: as key to securing Jack Warner's all important support. He
Speaker 1: was just one of twenty four voters, but Warner was
Speaker 1: known as a kingmaker within FIFA. If Mandela could woo
Speaker 1: the kg FIFA executive, South Africa would be one very
Speaker 1: crucial step closer to hosting the two thousand and ten
Speaker 1: World Cup. It was far from a done deal. As
Speaker 1: a member of FIFA's executive committee, Warner had already been
Speaker 1: to Morocco. In Egypt, Warner, along with Chuck Blazer and
Speaker 1: other FIFA executives, had been wined, dined, and nearly bribed.
Speaker 1: In Marrakesh, they were given fine China handmade rugs and
Speaker 1: offered one million dollars for their votes. While in Cairo,
Speaker 1: Warner asked for seven million dollars from the Egyptians. They
Speaker 1: turned them down. Instead, the Egyptians organized the fifty car
Speaker 1: motor Kid to the Pyramids of Giza, where the four
Speaker 1: thousand year old Sphinx was fired with speakers and announced
Speaker 1: I have waited thousands of years a host of FIFA
Speaker 1: World Cup. The stunts didn't work, and here's why Warner
Speaker 1: was an ambitious politician. He saw an opportunity at home
Speaker 1: that went beyond money. Bringing the legendary Mandela to Trinidad
Speaker 1: and Tobago with Bolster Warner politically in a way money couldn't,
Speaker 1: and also illustrated the extent of his power in FIFA's world.
Speaker 1: If Warner said jump, even South Africa's most famous Son
Speaker 1: was forced to say how high South Africa's gamble appeared
Speaker 1: to have worked. Once the votes were counted. The two
Speaker 1: thousand and ten FIFA Bold Cup will be organized people
Speaker 1: South Africa's moment. The country, indeed the continent, was at
Speaker 1: the center of the world. A nation it text to
Speaker 1: everyone said it was Mandela magic that bagged them the tournament.
Speaker 1: To the outside world, it seemed as if Mandela's charm,
Speaker 1: personal determination and strength of character had one over Warner,
Speaker 1: who along with Blazer, helped secure South Africa's victory. But
Speaker 1: after investigators raided the Barallac Hotel in May of two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, an entirely different, darker story emerged. It's
Speaker 1: the ten million dollar question. Was this historic moment the
Speaker 1: result of a ten million dollar bribe? A defining moment
Speaker 1: in football? The twenty ten World Cup on African soil
Speaker 1: for the first time and attended by Nelson Mandela, the
Speaker 1: former president, synonymous with the end of apartheid in South Africa.
Speaker 1: Now its legacy is at risk. US prosecutors alleged South
Speaker 1: African football officials paid a ten million dollar bribe to
Speaker 1: secure the rights to host the tournament. Warner wasn't moved
Speaker 1: by Mantella. Warner was bribed. It's emerged the money was
Speaker 1: first transferred to FIFA in Switzerland, then to Trinidadian and
Speaker 1: former FIFA Vice president Jack Warner. The FBI says they
Speaker 1: tried to disguise the bribe. South African officials insisted the
Speaker 1: payment made to FIFA was above board and was supposed
Speaker 1: to support the development of soccer among the African diaspora
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean. Here's the South African sports minister at
Speaker 1: the time. The fact that a payment of ten million
Speaker 1: rand's u S dollars was made to an approved program
Speaker 1: above bot does not equate to bribery. But the money
Speaker 1: accepted by FIFA and then approved for payment by its
Speaker 1: General Secretary Jerham Valc wasn't paid to Conquer CALF or
Speaker 1: any other legitimate soccer organization in the Caribbean. Instead, it
Speaker 1: was paid directly to Jack Warner. Here again, as journalist
Speaker 1: Losana Liberd Warna didn't make a habit of Levigini's position
Speaker 1: for the benefit of curry Ben Football or Tronadad and
Speaker 1: Tobago football as much as he tried to pay in
Speaker 1: that picture. As we've seen our particularly with the investigations
Speaker 1: within the US. He leveraged his positioned the suit himself financially.
Speaker 1: Here's the BBC confronting Jack Warner trying to get to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the bribery scandal. He turns with a
Speaker 1: ten million dollars Warner, Where did the ten million dollars
Speaker 1: go to? Can you tell us warm projects? Mr? Warner?
Speaker 1: When confronted, Warner couldn't account for the money, but journalists
Speaker 1: later uncovered documents that showed FIFA's payments went straight into
Speaker 1: accounts controlled by Warner. In Trinidad and Tobago. Nearly five
Speaker 1: billion dollars came through here and there's not a football
Speaker 1: pitching side. Once it was paid to Warner, the money
Speaker 1: just disappeared. This type of brazen bribery was common, and
Speaker 1: not only with Warner but throughout FIFA. Our problems here
Speaker 1: always went well beyond Jack Warner, and I would say
Speaker 1: that the corruption that we saw with Jackuana was really
Speaker 1: only a symptom. It was always stage handled in Zurich.
Speaker 1: It was set up for him the profit off of
Speaker 1: because that's all we are to FIFA really just votes.
Speaker 1: The votes like Bird refers to, are of course for
Speaker 1: world cup bids. Jack Warner left FIFA in disgrace in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eleven, kicked out, as you heard in
Speaker 1: the previous episode, for trying to fix the presidential election
Speaker 1: in favor of Mohammed bin Hamm. But Warner's exit didn't
Speaker 1: change much. In fact, his successor at Conker Calf, Jeffrey Webb,
Speaker 1: tried as hard as he could to replicate Warner's predatory ways.
Speaker 1: It's January two thousand and fourteen and the car cynical
Speaker 1: as Hanka Capps, new president, stride to the podium, he
Speaker 1: radiates stylish sophistication with perfectly tailored suits and a designer
Speaker 1: watch collection. Jeffrey Webb didn't just shine in the room,
Speaker 1: he commanded it. On this night, he was getting honored
Speaker 1: by the United Nations for his work to raise awareness
Speaker 1: about HIV AIDS, just one of the many initiatives he
Speaker 1: had launched when he took control of Conker Calf the
Speaker 1: North American Soccer Confederation. I have the mindset that you
Speaker 1: know what the game can can embark society. That's Webb.
Speaker 1: But it was Webb's dual promise of confronting racism and soccer.
Speaker 1: We are not going to to rid racism from from
Speaker 1: our society, but we must read it from from our
Speaker 1: game and of cleaning up corruption, we must move the
Speaker 1: clouds and allow the sunshine in. It's a new Day
Speaker 1: for CONCO. That added gravitas and legitimacy to his debonair appearance.
Speaker 1: Long before Webb became the head of Conkercalf and a
Speaker 1: FIFA Vice president, he was appointed to its Internal Audit Committee,
Speaker 1: where he had defended Set Bladder against rumors of corruption
Speaker 1: in two thousand and two. Webb builds a reputation as
Speaker 1: a reformer and was even talked about as a successor
Speaker 1: to Bladder by the time he took over Conka Caffe
Speaker 1: in two thousand and twelve. The Cayman Island native embodied
Speaker 1: the style and substance that so many FIFA officials before
Speaker 1: him had only pretended to represent. Even with his two
Speaker 1: million dollar a year Conka caff salary, frequent use of
Speaker 1: private jets, and love of nightlife, Webb appeared to be
Speaker 1: exactly what soccer needed after Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer's
Speaker 1: scandalous tenure. But not everyone saw Webb as a savior
Speaker 1: of global soccer. Certainly not Jose Avila. Avila was one
Speaker 1: of soccer's most important dealmakers and the owner of the
Speaker 1: sports marketing firm Traffic Group. Jose ah Vila got his
Speaker 1: start as a sports announcer covering Brazilian soccer in the
Speaker 1: nineties seventies. He built a small media empire with TV
Speaker 1: stations and newspapers, then went into sports marketing. Traffic Group
Speaker 1: came to dominate the lucrative contracts with FIFA's American and
Speaker 1: Latin American football confederations. When the man known as the
Speaker 1: Boss of Brazilian football first met Jeffrey Webb in London
Speaker 1: in two thousand and twelve, all the sports marketing mogul
Speaker 1: saw was another crooked FIFA official, albeit a well dressed one.
Speaker 1: If a Vila wanted access to conker cops lucrative regional tournaments,
Speaker 1: Webb demanded he pay him a jaw dropping on every
Speaker 1: deal he made. Even by FIFA's greedy standards, it was
Speaker 1: a stunning request. A Vila had been paying bribes for
Speaker 1: more than twenty years. He knew he'd have to pay one.
Speaker 1: He just hoped to talk Web down a little bit.
Speaker 1: A few months later after their initial London meeting, Abilla's
Speaker 1: firm wired one million dollars to web. The hands in
Speaker 1: the cookie jar might have changed, but they were as
Speaker 1: greedy as ever. After his meeting with the FBI and
Speaker 1: I R S agents outside of Trump Tower in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eleven, Chuck Blazer, Warner's right hand man turned
Speaker 1: FBI informant, was asked to do what pretty much every
Speaker 1: government snitches asked to do. At some point where a wire,
Speaker 1: Blazer had already outlined FIFA shady inner workings for the FBI,
Speaker 1: mapping out years of corruption. He not only connected the dots,
Speaker 1: Blazer showed federal agents how soccer system of illegal payments
Speaker 1: were made and who made him now. The FBI wanted
Speaker 1: Blazer to record his conversations with dodgy soccer officials, but
Speaker 1: there was just one problem. Blazer was physically too big
Speaker 1: to wear a wire. When he moved, the wire disconnected
Speaker 1: and his sweat threatened to short circuit the listing device.
Speaker 1: I swear I'm not making this up. The FBI instead
Speaker 1: came up with another plan and inserted a microphone inside
Speaker 1: a small key fob. The idea was he would place
Speaker 1: his keys on the table during a conversation. Blazer hated
Speaker 1: the idea. I mean, he really loathed it. He argued
Speaker 1: and fought with his FBI handlers. He insisted it was
Speaker 1: beneath a man of his importance and taste to toss
Speaker 1: keys on a table, which, considering the types of places
Speaker 1: he frequented, expensive New York steakhouses and Michelin Star type restaurants,
Speaker 1: it wasn't exactly wrong. And yet as Blazer sat down
Speaker 1: at a table and a five star restaurant in London
Speaker 1: and the closing days of the two thousand and t
Speaker 1: of Summer Olympics with Jose Avila, the same man Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Webb would later squeeze, they're the key fob sat waiting
Speaker 1: for the two crooks to talk. Avila had been at
Speaker 1: the center of soccer corruption ever since he founded his
Speaker 1: sports marketing company, Traffic Group. The Brazilian Mogul started paying
Speaker 1: bribes in the late eighties and never stopped regularly doling
Speaker 1: out cash to win the rights to organize some of
Speaker 1: FIFA's premiere events, including Conka Caps Gold Cup Tournament and
Speaker 1: come Bols Copa America. Advertisers and broadcasters who wanted deals
Speaker 1: with the coveted Copa America and Copa du Brazil tournaments
Speaker 1: had to go through traffic because they had exclusive marketing rights.
Speaker 1: That's from a CNN investigation. By the way, among the
Speaker 1: many FIFA officials, a Vila bribed or Jack Warner and
Speaker 1: Chuck Blazer. At first, the bribes were relatively small, a
Speaker 1: few hundred thousand dollars, but as the advertising revenue rule,
Speaker 1: so did the payoffs. Byteen avlan Co conspirators had agreed
Speaker 1: to pay one d million dollars in bribes for a
Speaker 1: COPA Medica contract spread among eleven different FIFA officials. As
Speaker 1: Blazer and a Vela sat chatting that summer day in
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve, Blazer pressed Avila to talk about
Speaker 1: a six hundred thousand dollar payment the Brazilian had made
Speaker 1: to Blazer back in two thousand and three. Blazer had
Speaker 1: requested the money years earlier as a loan. It was
Speaker 1: the type of loan both men knew would never get
Speaker 1: paid back. As they sat there in London talking, the
Speaker 1: fob recorded every word. A Villa said he couldn't remember
Speaker 1: the payment. He stalled suspicious maybe, but he promised Blazer
Speaker 1: he would look into it. The Brazilian had avoided implicating
Speaker 1: himself for now, But Blazer had told the FBI all
Speaker 1: about how a Vela operated, and now the FEDS were
Speaker 1: tracking the moguls every move. So who is Jose a Vila?
Speaker 1: At sixty nine years old, a Vila had built a
Speaker 1: fortune buying and selling the rights to broadcast soccer games.
Speaker 1: He had almost sold his stake in Traffic Group, but
Speaker 1: when the two thousand and eight financial crisis hit, his
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty million dollar paid a just disappeared overnight. Now,
Speaker 1: five years later, he was once again ready to get out.
Speaker 1: Sports marketing was getting more competitive and the payoffs were
Speaker 1: getting larger and more difficult to facilitate. A Villa didn't
Speaker 1: want the hassle anymore. He had already made a ton
Speaker 1: of money, more than he knew what to do with.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Miami and May of two thousand and thirteen,
Speaker 1: the Brazilian businessman arrived in Miami, hoping to add a
Speaker 1: four thousand square foot beach side home to his already
Speaker 1: impressive stable of properties. Then his hotel phone rang and
Speaker 1: the front desk asked him to come down to the lobby.
Speaker 1: Avila was surprised it was six in the morning. What
Speaker 1: came next terrified him. In the lobby was an FBI agent,
Speaker 1: Jared Randall, introduced himself and asked if Avila had ever
Speaker 1: tried to bribe soccer officials. Then Agent Randall listed off
Speaker 1: several names, Nicholas Leo's, Ricardo to Shara, and Chuck Blazer. Stunned,
Speaker 1: Avila pleaded ignorance. After a short conversation, Randall thanked him
Speaker 1: and left. Avila had just lied to the FBI, and
Speaker 1: the FBI knew it. Chuck Blazer had provided federal investigators
Speaker 1: with documents and receipts of wire transfers detailing hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars and bribes he had received from a
Speaker 1: villa and traffic group. Now, this is another key moment
Speaker 1: in the two thousand and fifteen FIFA case that led
Speaker 1: to the raid at the Borlak. There was a whole
Speaker 1: group of people that paid bribes, There's a whole group
Speaker 1: of people that assisted and facilitated the movement of those bribes,
Speaker 1: and then there's a whole bunch of people that accepted
Speaker 1: those bribes. That's former I R. S. Special Agent Amy
Speaker 1: Schabillion pointing out that bribery in the twenty century requires
Speaker 1: a lot of people to facilitate illegal payments, particularly bribes
Speaker 1: paid by wire transfer, which is how many of FIFA's
Speaker 1: illegal payments were made. Even though their originate, let's say,
Speaker 1: from Switzerland, and they end up in Uruguay, they still
Speaker 1: have to come through the US. The US financial system
Speaker 1: is the foundation of global finance. Just about every payment
Speaker 1: made in the world touches an American bank, which means
Speaker 1: the US government has jurisdiction in just about every case
Speaker 1: of financial corruption. So if you ever wondered how the
Speaker 1: FBI and the I r S got involved in a
Speaker 1: global SoC or bribery scandal, well it's because the crooks
Speaker 1: at FIFA used the U S system to make their payments,
Speaker 1: giving the Department of Justice jurisdiction. And once Jose ah
Speaker 1: Vila lied to FBI agent Jared Randall that early morning
Speaker 1: in Miami, the FBI had all it needed to arrest him.
Speaker 1: A few days later, the FBI did just that. Not surprisingly,
Speaker 1: the multi millionaire who spent his life frolicking among the
Speaker 1: rich and famous, chose the flip just like Chuck Blazer,
Speaker 1: rather than risk spending the rest of his life in
Speaker 1: a US prison. After his arrest, A Villa took up
Speaker 1: residence in an apartment in New York City as he
Speaker 1: worked with investigators. FIFA's corruption the most well known secret
Speaker 1: and global sports would soon be printed in black and
Speaker 1: white and held up by America's Attorney General for the
Speaker 1: whole world to see. They were expected to uphold the
Speaker 1: rules that keeps soccer honest and to protect the integrity
Speaker 1: of the game. Instead, they corrupted the business of worldwide
Speaker 1: soccer to serve their interests and to enrich themselves. You'll
Speaker 1: hear that and more in the next episode of The
Speaker 1: Lords of Soccer. The Lords of Soccer Al FIFA Stole
Speaker 1: the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media production in
Speaker 1: conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series was written and
Speaker 1: executive produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell. Logan
Speaker 1: Heftell and Katie mcmurran provided the sound design with assistance
Speaker 1: from j. C. Swaddick and Jake blue Note. Alec Cowen
Speaker 1: is our associate producer and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor.
Speaker 1: Our fact checker is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray,
Speaker 1: who produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you
Speaker 1: have any comments or questions, please reach out You can
Speaker 1: find us on Twitter. I'm at Connor M Powell and
Speaker 1: Gary is at Gary Robert Scott. And if you have
Speaker 1: any stories about FIFA, let us know. If you like
Speaker 1: what you hear, please give us a shout out at
Speaker 1: the hashtag Lords of Soccer